a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to analytical procedures for detection and determination of chemical constituents of substances, and particularly to separation and detection of very low levels of chemical compounds.
b. Problems in the Art
Many analytical procedures exist with respect to attempting to determine the chemical makeup of substances. For example, procedures such as chromotography, electrophoresis, fluorescence detection, and others have been developed for this purpose. Each of those broad categories, in turn, have many different variations.
Each of these methods has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, one type of electrophoresis, namely capillary zone electrophoresis, has very good separation efficiency, for separating out different chemical components, but is limited in its ability to detect what those components are. In many cases, to accurately detect the constituent chemical compounds, additional procedures are required which are very time consuming, and some of which require and result in destruction or alteration of the substance being analyzed.
While many of these analytical methods give what are many times considered acceptable results, these results are many times limited to a selected or narrow group or type of substances. Therefore, problems exist in that there is no adequate universal-type procedure which can separate and detect a wide variety of substances.
Further problems exist with conventional analytical methods with regard to the amount of time required for resolution and derivation of meaningful information, and also with respect to the reliability of the information. Some detection procedures affect the separation process, dilute the sample, or otherwise bring into doubt the reliability of the entire separation and detection process.
Furthermore, with conventional procedures, there are significant problems with respect to getting efficient and accurate information regarding small amounts of materials to be analyzed, or in analyzing materials having small fractional amounts of chemical compounds. This is especially true for materials which have constituent chemical compounds which do not have inherent physical properties such as UV (ultraviolet) or visible absorption, fluorescence, or electrochemical characteristics.
Thus, a primary problem exists for analyzing substances having constituent chemical compounds which are not significantly fluorescing. Such substances are quite abundant in biotechnological and biochemical areas, which are of particular interest.
There is therefore a real need for an improvement in the art with respect to the problems discussed above. There is a need for an analytical procedure which is more efficient than conventional procedures with regard to time and derivation of results, and which improves the efficiency of separation and detection of chemical constituent compounds. Additionally, there is a need for a procedure that is flexible and applicable to many different types of substances and situations so that it can be used somewhat universally. There is also the need for a procedure which can function efficiently and reliably with regard to small sample amounts or with regard to samples having minute fractional amounts of compounds which are either difficult or impossible to detect by conventional methods.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a means and method of capillary zone electrophoresis with laser-induced indirect fluorescence detection which improves over or solves the deficiencies and problems in the art.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is reliable and efficient.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is fairly universal in its application, yet simple in procedure and in apparatus to accomplish the procedure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is non-destructive, and does not alter the characteristics of the substances being analyzed.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which saves significant time in deriving results.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is operable with respect to very small quantities of sample materials to be analyzed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is reliable with respect to detectibility of minute fractional amounts of chemical compounds.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which improves and makes more efficient the separation of chemical compounds, the detection of chemical compounds, and the sensitivity to detection of chemical compounds.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a means and method which is useful for a variety of analytical situations and substances.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is useful for non-fluorescing substances.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means and method as above described which is safe and economical.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the accompanying specification and claims.